Insurance Journal: 'Willis Chief Warns London Audience of Major Risk Increases in 21st Century'

Insurance Journal, 9 February 2012

'The 21st century has already witnessed a transformational shift in the global risk landscape, with a palpable change in the severity and frequency of events since 2000, warned Willis Chairman and CEO Joe Plumeri.

Speaking to an audience at the InsiderScope London 2012 Conference, held in the Willis Building, Plumeri called for a “repositioning of the insurance industry as the global leaders on resilience and commercial sustainability for companies, organizations and enterprises facing a future of unknowable risks.”

Willis’ report of the event noted that Plumeri has “viewed the new risk landscape evolving over the last decade from the front lines.” He urged his colleagues to view insurance “not simply as a transaction but rather as the natural business partner for clients achieving mitigation of risk and enabling long-term sustainable growth.”

Plumeri stressed that the pace and severity of events between 2000 and 2011, combined with long-term risks arising from challenges such as climate change, growing income disparity, increasing competition for energy resources and the fundamental shift in the global balance of power from the West to the rapidly emerging powers of China, Brazil, India and others, all “symbolize a world which is struggling to find a new equilibrium.”

Read the full story on the Insurance Journal website here

Asian Insurance and Climate Change Summit – taking a supply chain approach

The Second Climate Change Summit for Asia’s Insurance Industry took place on 30-31^st January 2012 in Singapore. In discussing the top global risks idenified by WEF, it was understood that climate change was likely to be a contributor to food, water and energy shortages. Consequently a key theme that emerged was an interest in looking at climate change in terms of risks to supply chains and the need for a better understanding of the concentration of exposure risk to climate change. However the challenge remains to create spaces for collaboration and cross-sector working, especially as industry focus tends to be at the national level. 

In this sense the collaborative approach of ClimateWise offers some useful lessons that were shared in a presentation by Katharine Thoday from the ClimateWise Secretariat at CPSL and ClimateWise member Greg Lowe, Senior Sustainability Manager at Aon Limited. Several other presenters also mentioned ClimateWise in the solutions space – particularly regarding discussions around opportunities for increasing low carbon investments and ClimateWise's recent work in this area. Hopefully increased visibility will lead to increased climate engagement by the Asian Insurance Industry.

POST: 'Insurers must influence the debate on how businesses and governments manage risks'

Rachel Gordon, Post Online
24 January 2012

‘Climate change may be increasing the likelihood of natural catastrophes around the world — and for global insurers covering businesses, the challenges are daunting as they seek to provide protection for corporations that have complex supply chains involving multiple countries.

In some regions where, for example, earthquakes are likely, insurers may withdraw and leave cover to governments — but making localised decisions based on a single risk is not relevant when looking at insurance for all weather-related or other natural disasters.

With the structure of some multinational companies, insurers cannot pick and choose which regions they cover — if they want the business, they need to take the rough with the smooth.

And, it is notable that the major global players are focused on providing solutions and insurers, brokers and insurance-specialist consultants have all up-skilled in recent years, in terms of their climate and sustainability employees.

There is more collaboration going on too, with the insurance initiative ClimateWise one example of a global membership covering Europe, North America and Southern Africa focusing on issues affecting emerging as well as traditional markets.’

Read the full story on POST Online here

Environmental Bonds conference 2012

ClimateWise is supporting this conference on the basis of work done by members last year to increase opportunities to make low carbon fixed income investments, while also pointing to the risks of unintended consequences of financial regulation preventing insurers playing a meaningful role.

Read about the conference on the Environmental Finance website here

Green Bonds: Mainstreaming low carbon investment

The National, 25 December 2011

'[A] financing mechanism to arise from the international negotiating process that spawned Kyoto is the Green Climate Fund, which is meant to funnel $100bn a year by 2030 towards climate change abatement projects in developing nations. But nations have yet to agree on who will pay into the fund and who will run it.

That's where green bonds come in, hopes Sean Kidney, the co-founder of Climate Bonds, a green bonds organisation.

"The world is shifting to these kinds of products in recent years," says Mr Kidney. "The investors don't want to take a haircut. The awareness of macro risks of climate change means that given the choice between a fossil fuel product and a green product where the risk-reward ratio is the same, they will choose the green product."

Read the full story on The National website here

Read more about ClimateWise's work on mainstreaming low carbon investment here

Santam research: Insurance in a changing risk landscape - local lessons from the Southern Cape of South Africa

The research partnership between ClimateWise member Santam, the WWF, the University of Cape Town and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research aims to develop a practical and integrated understanding of how the key components of RISK, RESILIENCE, ROLE and RESPONSE are changing in the Southern Cape in such a way as to demand new forms of collaboration between insurers and society in order to build climate and disaster-resilient communities.

Read the report here.

Creating long term value – Insurers ask for action so they can contribute to new growth

Insurers could help the global economy fight back to growth, and tackle climate change if issuers and regulators increased opportunities to make low carbon fixed income investments, say ClimateWise members representing more than US$3 trillion in assets under management.

Institutional investors Allianz, Aviva, Legal and General and Swiss Re, with Investment and Pension Advisors Aon Hewitt have today called for action as the business community comes together at the Fifth Global Business Day at the climate negotiations in Durban. The insurers want to draw attention to the gap between the low carbon investment needed and the fixed income carbon investments available.

Click here to access the full statement

ClimateWise launches Compendium of disaster risk transfer initiatives in the developing world

Today Dr. David Bresch, Head of Sustainability and Emerging Risk Management at Swiss Re and Dr.Swenja Surminski,  Senior Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics spoke about how strategic investments in risk reduction and risk transfer can facilitate adaptation and lower the long term costs of adaptation.

They were speaking at a side event on insurance and climate risk adaptation at the climate change negotiations in Durban. The event hosted by ClimateWise in partnership with Santam and UNEP FI was an opportunity to launch the outputs of the ClimateWise Collaboration on adaptation in the developing world.

ClimateWise members worked with researchers at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics to deepen understanding about the key components that would allow public-private schemes to be both commercially viable and deliver physical risk reduction outcomes. A compendium of over 100 existing schemes has been brought together and analysed to inform the design and development of future disaster risk reduction schemes.

Click here to access the Compendium and analysis

How do we protect growth in a world of ‘new normals’? Opinion Piece by ClimateWise Chairman John Coomber

Following the IPCC's latest report ‘Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters for Climate Change Adaptation’, and on the day of the ClimateWise Fourth Annual Summit, Chairman of ClimateWise John Coomber has written an opinion piece entitled: "How do we protect growth in a world of ‘new normals’?"

To read the opinion piece, click here.

If you have views you want to share, or would like to request an interview with Mr Coomber, please contact us here.

'Climate change: Industry becomes more aware of environmental role'

Financial Times, 6 October 2011
“Through initiatives such as ClimateWise and the United Nations Environment Programme’s finance initiative principles for sustainable insurance, there is a growing awareness that insurance companies are at the forefront of encouraging reductions in CO2 emissions and effective climate adaptation mechanisms,” 
Rowan Douglas, Chief Executive, Global Analytics, at ClimateWise member Willis Re.

Read the story on the FT website here